Deal with Utica fire union could help avoid layoffs

A deal with the city’s fire union could help avoid layoffs in that department.

DAN MINER

A deal with the city’s fire union could help avoid layoffs in that department.

The Common Council is set to consider a resolution tonight on a two-year agreement between Mayor Robert Palmieri and the fire union leadership.

That deal must still be approved by the city Board of Estimate and Apportionment and union membership – and the council’s approval will be contingent on those happenings.

It will still include the 12 firefighter job cuts included in the recently passed 2012-13 budget – but both Palmieri and Chief Russell Brooks said it will involve retirements instead of layoffs.

Details of the deal were not immediately available.

The deal will also allow for the restoration of supervisory positions in the fire department cut previously by the council. That includes previously eliminated chief fire marshal and assistant maintenance superintendant positions. two more deputy chiefs and four more captains.

Captains had previously been cut from 10 to 3 – but will be bumped back up to 7. Deputy chiefs had been cut from 4 to 2 – but will be bumped back up to 4.